Tron:Daybreak
by DaniHyrosha
Summary: Tron and Risie are in the "Real World" now and with the Grid's reboot not going well, it looks like they're stuck here for a while. One major spoiler for Legacy. Sequel to Tron:Dawn  Closed so I can start the extended edition
1. Homesick

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Tron. Disney does.

Tron lay on the grass outside the house Sam had bought just after Tron and Risie had left the Grid. Risie lay perpendicular to his feet. They had been sparring all morning. Risie wore a blue tank top and black shorts and Tron wore a pair of black workout pants. They had decided to lie on the grass and let the afternoon sun soak through their sweat covered bodies. Both were breathing hard and smiling. It had been two weeks since they had left the Grid. Neither of them were quite sure what they should be doing, so when Sam and Quorra were at ENCOM meetings, Tron and Risie sparred in the back yard. Tron sat up on one elbow and reached for the plate of sandwiches on the blanket beside them.

The plate was empty.

Risie was licking the peanut butter from her fingers. She had discovered her love of peanut butter in their first days and so Tron and Risie usually ate peanut butter sandwiches after a sparring match. Sam had said it was a strange choice, but Risie liked it and Tron had no objections. She was smiling now, watching the clouds as they lazily passed overhead. Tron wasn't sure what she liked about watching the clouds in the afternoon, but it brought a smile to her face. She would tell him the different shapes they made. He would follow her eyes, but still only saw them as abstract shapes of vapor in the sky.

"What time will the others be home?" Tron said.

"After dark," Risie said, "Sam said the meeting was only one of many things to do today. He said something about him and Quorra going out somewhere."

Risie sat up on one elbow and her eyes met Tron's. Sweat from their sparring match caused her brown hair to stick to her face. She had changed the moment they had left the Grid. The white hair coming from her temples was gone, as well as the scar that had lined her face for so many cycles. The only mark she still had was what looked like an old white scar on her back, in the same place that the logo on her armor had been. All of Tron's unique marks were gone as well. No one would suspect that they weren't Users, but programs.

"So what's the plan for the day?" Risie said.

"You said you wanted to go to the beach today," Tron said.

Risie said, "Did you and Sam finish the bikes yet?"

This time, Tron did smile. Sam had been able to purchase some motorcycles, but they needed a little work before they could be used. Sam stayed up late into the night teaching Tron how to fix a motorcycle. Sam had also taught Tron and Risie how to ride one.

"Finished last night," Tron said, "you want to try them out?"

She jumped to her feet. By the time Tron joined her inside the house, she had changed her clothes. She was wearing one of Sam's old outfits, similar to the one he had worn the first time he had come to the Grid. Quorra had tried to get Risie to wear something made for a girl, but Risie complained about the material and so Sam had donated one of his older outfits. Tron changed as well, grabbing two helmets on their way out to the garage. Two black motorcycles sat waiting for them. Neither spoke as they started riding down the road towards the beach just outside the city.

They arrived at the beach soon after, but decided that they were having more fun riding. They continued down the road, letting the wind echo in their ears. Neither would admit to the other how much they missed the Grid. Even if it was far from perfect, it was the only life they had ever known. Sam had gotten the motorcycles because of their similarity to Lightcycles. It was something familiar in a world that was very new.

The sun was setting by the time they stopped. Somehow they had made their way to Flynn's Arcade in the city. It was under this building that Flynn had built the Grid. This was where Sam still accessed the Grid and it was the first place Quorra, Risie and Tron had seen when they entered the "Real World".

"I wonder how the reboot is coming along," Risie said quietly.

Tron was thinking the same thing, but had no answer. A voice behind them made Risie jump. A hand went to her back, trying to find a non-existent disk. Tron chuckled as he turned around.

"Hello, Sam," Tron said, "I thought you were busy tonight."

"I had a surprise for you two, but I didn't expect to see you here," he said, "Do you want to see?"

"What is it?" Risie asked.

"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you," Sam said, "come on in."

Tron and Risie left their motorcycles outside and followed Sam inside the arcade. The first thing Risie noticed was the noise. All of the games were on and the chaos of all the different sounds made her flinch. Tron only shook his head. Sam led them up a set of stairs to an office where Quorra sat. An older man sat next to her.

Tron had never met the older man, but knew who he was instantly. After all, Tron looked exactly like his User had over twenty years previous. Alan's hair was lighter and he wore glasses, but otherwise matched Tron in every way. Tron stopped in the doorway when he saw Alan. Risie grabbed his elbow.

"That's him isn't it?" Risie asked, "Alan1? He looks just like you, but he's different."

Tron went to speak, but only a small squeaking sound came out.

"Quorra," Sam said with a big grin, "look who I found outside."

"Tron! Risie!" Quorra said with excitement, "you're just in time!"

"Tron?" Alan turned to the doorway.

Tron's eyes met Alan's own. Program and User were frozen for a long time before either responded. Alan approached Tron and wrapped the former security program in a big hug. Alan grabbed Tron's shoulders and looked him up and down.

"I never thought it was possible," Alan said, "I mean, I knew what happened to Kevin when he first met you, but I thought it was a one-time thing. He told me you were on his new Grid, but I never thought I'd get to…well…see you again."

Tron was still perfectly still. Tears were forming in his eyes.

"What is it, Tron?" Risie asked with concern, "are you hurt?"

"I never thought I would ever hear from you," Tron finally said, "Flynn told me that there wasn't a way for anyone else to come into the system."

"Is this the surprise?" Risie turned to Sam.

"Sort of," Sam said, "Alan was going to come over for dinner tomorrow, but he has to go out of town tomorrow. I was trying to figure out how to get them together before he left."

"The big surprise is the arcade," Quorra said, "we're going to be reopening it tomorrow before Alan leaves."

Risie walked to the office window overlooking the games below. Sam had let her play a few when he was here working on rebooting the Grid below. She was hooked ever since.

"Yes, Risie," Sam said, "you can have first play."

Risie's eyes went wide. She squealed in delight and stared downstairs for a while. She didn't notice how quiet everyone else was until she turned around. Tron and Alan were gone, along with Sam. Only Quorra had stayed behind.

"Something tells me that's not all," Risie said.

"There is something else," Quorra said.

She motioned to the couch and Risie sat beside her.

"The reboot isn't going well," Quorra said, "Clu corrupted too much. We just now got everything shut down and it's going to take weeks to get all the programs back online. It may be months before you two can go back to the Grid, if ever."

"You mean this may be our world now?" Risie asked.

"I'm afraid so," Quorra said, "I cried for hours when Sam told me. Sam wants to be the one to tell Tron. I wanted to tell you, since we've known each other a long time."

"Is there any hope that it will all work?" Risie asked hopefully.

Quorra looked at Risie carefully. Risie had become a serious security program again. Quorra put a hand on Risie's shoulders and pulled her close. Risie burst into tears, letting her serious demeanor shatter. She had been homesick for days and the idea of never going back to the Grid frightened her. There, she was always sure of herself and what she could do. Here, in the "Real World", things weren't so simple.

Downstairs, Tron was getting a similar conversation.

Tron took it all with a straight face. Sam could see in Tron's eyes the sadness and pain Tron felt. Sam went back to the basement to work on the Grid while Alan sat with Tron outside the arcade.

"I'm sorry," Alan said, "Sam told me that was your home."

"It was…it is," Tron said, "I worry about the programs I was supposed to protect. I should not have left them."

"They'll be fine," Alan said, "if there's anything I know is that people, and programs, can always surprise you."

"How do you know that, Alan?" Tron asked.

"Well, you're here, aren't you?" Alan said with a smile.

A smile crept on Tron's face. He soon found he could relax with Alan, tell him what he thought. Tron often wondered what Flynn meant when he described himself as a father. Tron had still wondered what Sam's status as Flynn's son was, but now it made more sense. For what it was worth, Alan was Tron's father. After talking for a while, Tron finally asked the question most on his mind.

"What happened to the old system?" he said.

Alan shook his head. "It's scattered. Most of the programs were divided up when we started expanding. They're all on the main server, Kevin made sure of that. You miss them?"

"Sometimes," Tron said, "mostly Yori."

"Lora's program," Alan said, "Kevin took a lot of steps to ensure that program was kept just the way it was. She's still in the system somewhere. I'm not sure where she ended up, but it was someplace only Kevin could delete things from."

Tron's eyes lit up, but Alan shook his head.

"I can't get into that system anymore, Tron," Alan said, "you'd need Kevin, and Sam tells me that's going to be difficult."

Tron let out a long sigh. It really was time to let the old system go. He had mostly put it behind him by now, but there was always that spark of hope that Flynn could bring the others to the new Grid once it was complete.

Tron and Alan looked up as they heard footsteps approaching. Quorra and Risie walked up to them. Risie was rubbing her eyes, red from crying. She put on a brave face when she saw Tron, trying to look as if nothing was bothering her.

"Well, we all have a big day tomorrow," Alan said as he stood, "Are you two going to be all right?"

Tron nodded. Alan turned to Risie.

"I don't think we've actually met," Alan said, "but you look like…"

"Yori," Tron said, "her hair is different, and so is her attitude, but the face is just like Yori."

"And Yori looks like my wife, Lora," Alan said, "I'm sorry about the Grid."

"Thank you Alan1," Risie said, "I've heard a lot about you."

"Just Alan, please," Alan said, "I didn't catch your name."

"Risie," Risie said.

Alan smiled. "Risie. I'll see you all tomorrow."

With that, Alan left the group. Risie sat next to Tron on the sidewalk. She was still rubbing her eyes.

"Are you hurt?" Tron said.

"No," Risie said, "no. I'm just a little, what did Sam tell us it was? Homesick."

Tron put an arm around Risie's shoulders and she put her head on his chest. Neither knew why, but it felt like the right thing to do. Quorra sat beside them until Sam joined them. Sam and Quorra mirrored Tron and Risie, looking out at the sky. It was full of stars.

The next morning was a busy morning. All four arrived at the arcade not too long after the sun rose. People were lined up around the block trying to get in. Alan arrived just after they did and all four went inside. Sam gave Risie two quarters and while Sam and Alan discussed how the day would progress, Risie pulled Tron to her favorite game.

Tron didn't know if he should be honored or appalled at the game with his name emblazoned on it. It was Lightcycles, but he couldn't figure out if it meant derezzing programs. Risie assured him that "no programs were harmed in the making or playing of this game". She challenged him and very quickly lost.

Sam smiled as he watched and Alan opened the doors to the arcade. People came streaming in and soon the arcade was full of life. It wasn't much, but Sam knew it would cheer them all up. Besides, having something to do besides the ENCOM board meetings was something Sam and Alan were looking forward to.

And the smiles on Tron and Risie's faces as they played again and again on the TRON game made it all worth it.


	2. Nightmare

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Tron, Disney owns Tron.

A month after the arcade opened, Sam came home sick from ENCOM and stayed home, mostly in bed, for days. Once Sam was feeling well enough to return to work, he did so, going back to the long days at ENCOM and the long nights working on the Grid.

Only a few days after Sam returned to work, there was a pounding at his door just after he fell asleep that morning. He rolled over, hoping for a peaceful day off. Quorra was managing the arcade today and Risie and Tron had planned to spend the day riding their motorcycles.

"Sam!" Risie's voice yelled through the door.

Sam pulled the pillow over his head.

"Sam!" Risie yelled again, "I think he's dying!"

This made Sam jump out of bed. He tossed on a t-shirt to go with his shorts and opened the door. Risie stood there in her now-trademark tank top and blue jeans.

"Who's dying?" Sam asked.

Risie took a fistful of his t-shirt and pulled him to the room she and Tron shared. Tron lay on his bunk, spent face tissues filling a small trash can and his face was slightly pale. Sweat made his hair stick to his face and his body ached all over.

"See," Risie said, "something infected him."

"It's called the Flu," Sam said, "it's what I had."

Tron opened his eyes and turned to look at Risie and Sam.

"Flu?" Tron asked quietly.

"It's a virus," Sam said, "Most people get over it in less than a week. Don't you two have anti-virus sub-routines?"

Risie nodded.

"Then you'll be miserable," Sam said, "but you'll be fine. Now, if no one else is going to die, I'm going back to bed."

And with that, Sam was gone.

With a huff, Risie sat in the chair next to Tron's bunk. She folded her arms across her chest.

"I told you," he said, "you were over-reacting."

She turned to face away from him. He tried to laugh and ended up coughing instead. She handed him a bottle of water as he sat up. Risie reached up to her bunk above Tron's own and pulled out a package from under her pillow.

"Quorra gave this to me," she said.

Tron peered over the water bottle he was draining to read the message on the small box: In case of severe homesickness or other odd feeling, unwrap and use in morning exercises.

"You're still homesick?" Tron said, "I thought you were over that."

"I started dreaming," Risie said.

Both knew that Users would dream when they were asleep about events that never happened and places they had never been. Neither expected to really dream, though they did experience memory replay while asleep.

"Tell me about it," he said.

"We're at the Sea of Simulation, you and I," Risie said, "staring out at an open portal. The lights in the city go out and we ride out to find it covered in Grid-bugs. I head for the city center and the place is empty of programs. I start to attack the bugs and I wake up."

"Stranger and stranger," Tron said, "it sounds like a memory replay, but the city center is never empty."

"Isn't that what Flynn said a dream was?" Risie wondered aloud.

Tron nodded. He lay back on his bed, propping his head up with one arm.

"So open it," he said.

Risie opened the box carefully. A round item wrapped in tissue paper was inside. Tron grabbed the note on it and read it aloud.

"Sam made me one when I got here," he said, "I know this world is confusing and wonderful and the same time. I also know it's a scary place. This should give you a piece of 'home'. Quorra."

Risie tore off the tissue paper to reveal a metal disk wrapped in black leather. It was the same size, shape and weight as her disk on the Grid. Tron turned the note over and read the other side.

"Not to be thrown or used on people," he said.

Suddenly, he sneezed. It was a high-pitched noise that made Risie giggle. Tron, however, was not amused. He grabbed a handful of face tissues to blow his nose.

"This Flu makes you sound funny," she said.

"Go try out your disk," he said,

Risie nodded and stood, rubbing Tron's shoulder as she left. Tron fell asleep to the sound of Risie fighting invisible programs.

_Risie stood on the edge of the Sea of Simulation. She wore the armor she had been initially programmed with. She had one baton holstered on her leg and another in her hand. Tron stood next to her, staring at the open portal across the Sea._

_Suddenly, the city behind them went dark. Both turned, racing their Lightcycles into the city. They split up and Risie arrived in the city center alone._

_Grid-bugs were crawling everywhere. The city was void of programs and eerily silent. Risie disengaged her Lightcycle, assessing the situation. Her armor modified itself as a result, unfolding to cover her in heavy armor from head to toe. She pulled out her disk and launched herself at the bugs._

_They were easily derezzed under her disk, but the more she destroyed, the more of them seemed to attack her; and they were getting smarter. Some of them even started to deflect her thrown disk. Risie split her disk, throwing one and keeping the other for close combat. Two Grid-bugs finally got close enough to land a critical strike. One impaled her leg with its claw, punching a hole in her leg and spilling pixels as it withdrew the claw._

_Risie didn't notice as the scenery around her changed. The Grid-bugs grew into Programs and soon she stood not in the city center, but the Arena. She destroyed these programs with the same indifference she had used with the bugs. In the end, only she and one other program remained. His face was hidden behind his helmet. His white armor lines lit up an area around him. He took up a stance that mirrored Risie's own and drew his disk._

_Risie immediately attacked. He dodged her, but did not attack her directly. If he did not wish to fight, what was he doing in the Arena?_

_She did not have time to process that question before she overpowered him. She knocked him on his back, forcing his disk to fly out of his reach. She slammed her disk into his chest, causing him to cry out in pain, but he failed to derezz. She used her other disk to shatter his helmet, then raised it to deal the killing blow. His armor lines started flickering out. She finally saw his face._

_Tron's lifeless eyes stared at nothing. The pixels around them from his injuries started to melt, forming into a thick dark liquid Risie had only just heard about; blood. Risie looked up at the Arena wall at her reflection._

_Rinzler stared back at her._

_Risie threw back her head and let out a roar._

Risie woke up screaming. Tron was standing on a chair beside her bunk, trying to wake her. He shook her arm until he bolted upright. She was sweating and shivering at the same time. She wrapped her arms around her chest, trying to stop the pounding feeling inside. Her breathing came in quick gasps.

"Risie," Tron said, "talk to me."

Risie kept gasping for air. Tron shook her shoulders.

"Risie!" he shouted.

She yelped in surprise, falling off the bunk. Tron caught her and sat her on the edge of his bunk. She tried to look at him and instead put her face in her hands. Risie started to cry and Tron put a hand around her shoulders.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I don't know," Risie said over and over, "I don't know."


	3. Camping

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Tron: that would be Disney.

Risie spent the next week cooped up in the house playing video games. She slept only when she passed out from exhaustion. The dream had frightened her into silence. It was Quorra that came up with an idea to get her out of the house. Sam went out and borrowed a pickup truck. He loaded it up with camping equipment and taught Tron how to drive it, which didn't take more than a few days.

Sam and Quorra found Risie the morning they put their plan into action on the couch in her trademark tank top and blue jeans. Without a word of warning, Sam took one arm and Quorra took the other. They dragged her, barefoot, kicking and screaming, to the truck, where they unceremoniously tossed her into the cab where Tron waited in the driver's seat. Before Risie could escape, she was locked in. Sam banged on the side of the truck and Quorra waved, the ISO yelling for the others to have a good time. Tron put the truck in gear and drove away.

By the time they were on the freeway, Risie was calm and strapping on a pair of hiking boots. Tron focused on the road, giving Risie time to adjust to her "kidnapping". Risie stared out the side window, watching the trees fly past. It was late afternoon when they left the freeway for a small two-lane highway. As the sun was setting, they pulled off into a dirt road. Tron drove the truck carefully through the trees until they parted to reveal a small campground overlooking the ocean. Risie's eyes went wide when she saw it.

Tron wordlessly exited the truck. He and Sam had discussed a camping trip. The idea amused Tron. When Quorra said that just Tron and Risie should go, Tron objected. He had no real camping knowledge. Sam taught Tron what little he remembered and had invited Alan over to teach Tron the rest.

Tron opened Risie's door. Risie was still unresponsive, so he scooped her up into his arms and sat her on a dry log. He started building a fire while she watched the sun set.

"How long are you going to be on stand-by?" he said as he finished.

She looked down at her hands. He knelt in front of her and grabbed her wrists, shaking them as hard as he dared. Her eyes met his own.

"I did the math," he said, "it's been a full cycle since you woke up screaming."

She went to speak, but snapped her mouth shut. Tron sighed and stood. He turned walk back to the truck when Risie finally spoke.

"I killed you," she said, staring back at her hands.

Tron turned back to her, watching her hands begin to shake.

"I killed you, Tron," Risie said.

He sat next to her. She found herself telling him everything from her dream. When she was done, she was in tears and her whole body was shaking. Tron put an arm around Risie's shoulders and let her lean on his own.

"It was only a dream," he said, "I know you're afraid of that part of you, but it is a part of you now and you are strong enough to overcome it."

"I'm not any stronger than you," she said.

They sat for a long time in silence. Neither wanted to voice the fear the nightmare had infused in them. Risie was afraid it was true, that one day she would be a cold and calculating killer. Tron was afraid that if it came to that, would he really fail to save her and refuse to fight?

To break the tension, Tron went to the truck and returned with two blankets and a bag of food. Inside the bag Risie recognized chocolate bars, marshmallows and graham crackers.

"Alan said that one of the things you are supposed to do camping is using these to make something called a s'more," Tron said, "I don't get why, but Quorra said we should try it."

He stuck a marshmallow on the end of a roasting stick and shoved it into the fire. After a few attempts, most of them ending with charred marshmallow remains, he successfully made a roasted marshmallow. He sandwiched it between a chocolate bar and a graham cracker. He took a bite and laughed.

"This is really good," he said, "and really hot."

"Let me try," Risie said.

He went to hand her the stick, but she snatched the s'more out of his hand and took a bite. She smiled for the first time since that night as the marshmallow stuck to her fingers. She tried to pull the marshmallow off her fingers, making it worse. Risie laughed as she touched Tron's nose, causing the marshmallow goo to stick to his face. Tron went cross-eyed trying to see it.

They each wrapped up in their own blankets, making s'mores and talking about old friends. They talked into the night, Tron calling it quits on the snacks while Risie kept right on going. As the moon started to set over the water, they finally set up a tent using the truck's lights to help. They got their own sleeping bags and fell asleep.

A strange weight on Tron's face woke him in the early afternoon. While he and Risie had fallen asleep on different sides of the tent, somehow overnight their feet had tangled up and Risie ended up on her stomach next to him. The strange weight was her hand plastered over his nose and eyes. Tron quickly escaped, untangling his feet as Risie rolled away from him in her sleep.

He walked outside, sitting by the fire pit. He was watching the waves crash on the shore when he heard a literal gut-wrenching sound. Risie was holding a blanket around herself and throwing up into the trees beside the tent. Tron tried not to laugh. He had felt the sugar begin to affect him last night and that's when he had stopped eating.

Risie clearly didn't get that feeling.

Tron could not hold in his smile as Risie turned to him. Her brown hair was a tangled mess. She glared at him and he started laughing.

"Too much of a good thing," he said.

She tried to keep a smile off her own face and failed.

"I hate you," she said, then laughed before throwing up again.

Two days later they came home. Quorra and Sam were pleasantly surprised at Risie's turnaround. She was smiling and laughing again. She had also discovered something she loved to do, and was good at: drawing. When it got too hot in the summer heat to be outside, she would draw anything she could see and sometimes things she couldn't see. She also started drawing memories of the Grid.

By the end of summer, one wall in her room was covered in paper sketches of the Grid. A lot of them were from the Arena.

The sketch they all centered around was the four friends as they were on the Grid.

**Author's Notes:**

Well, I know it was short, but I have writer's block. I can't seem to think of what kind of things to put them through. I am going to write the next story and jump a year or so ahead. That way I can add to this one as I get ideas. I would also love to hear from you guys on what you would like to see happen to Risie and Tron while they're here in the User World.


	4. Author's Note

Author's Note:

Sorry about being gone so long. A co-worker of mine broke his wrist, so I took over a bunch of his shifts. Then my gma broke her leg. Both are doing just fine and my co-worker comes back today (yay ^^ we missed him). It's been all broken bones out here I guess.

Anyway, I was going to finish these two stories, but while covering extra shifts and helping around the house while gma's gone, I started writing the extended edition I've been talking about. So I am going to close these and start posting that one soon.

Thanks for all the support and see you soon!

-Dani


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